The possibilities of this technology are only limited, as Craig mentioned, primarily by our imagination. The major goal of his work is to assemble a working language of genetic code which can be easily written and optimized creating an organism which has desirable traits. The promise of this can be seen in building organisms which solve the major challenges facing humanity today. An example can be seen in carbon dioxide, where we produce the compound as a waste other organisms metabolize it as food. Think, plants though others act more efficiently. With Venter’s work we could soon see a method of easily building a organism which can take that carbon dioxide, digests it, and emits octane or other useful substances.

The way Criag is approaching this problem is by building that language of genomes. The hope is that eventually a computer aided design program will allow design with just a point and a click. Truly exciting.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/140 – Insights on poverty. The speaker is great, very informed, and his message is wonderfully clear. One of the most inspiring talks to me, and the end is just a bonus.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/147 – The animation of a cell. This talk brings to light some good points about education. The main point is to illustrate the beauty of the sciences, which is sometimes stripped in our education system. The animation is simply wonderful.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/146 – Will Wright on Spore.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/144 – Jonathan Harris on the soul of our internet.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/162 – Creating life in art.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/165 – Self teaching robots.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129